Powerhouse Company completes Villa CG in eastern Dutch city of Enschede

Located in the eastern Dutch city of Enschede, Villa CG employs a unique horizontal form and is the latest residential project from Powerhouse Company

Villa CG sits on Museumlaan: a new, particularly special avenue reserved for designs by architects of national and international standing, including SeARCH, Erick van Egeraat and Bolles+Wilson. The clients, a family of four, commissioned Powerhouse Company to design 'the most beautiful house in the street', and the result is a home that spans two stories and is characterised by its horizontal form.

Taking design cues from the surrounding low hedge of the property, the house is all about symmetry, balance and grace. From the street, the home presents itself as a simple cube, clad in an unusually long, thin brick and divided vertically by a wide cantilevered floor slab. The front elevation is designed to be private and closed, with only the entrance door as a single opening.

At ground level on either end of the core, two full glass window bays contain the kitchen, the dining room and a study/guest room. A glass facade wraps around the back of the building to give the very private living room views over every aspect of the garden. On the lower floor, the exterior darkness of the bricks combines with American walnut veneer fittings to create an enveloping space.

The cube continues in the interior, shaped as furniture objects that define the living room and connect precisely with the brick exterior walls. With two fully hidden sliding doors, the study and guest room can be closed off from the living room, while the kitchen and living room are connected by a see-through fireplace.

An oak wood staircase winds up to the first floor underneath a large circular skylight. This floor is a cube in its most pure appearance: closed on three sides, while the three bedrooms have garden views through glass sliding doors that cover the full width of the rooms. The other spaces, like the bathroom and laundry room, receive daylight through large skylights.

The materials used in Villa CG are timeless, with the long, slim bricks giving the cube a delicate and elegant level of detail. The colour of the brick was selected very carefully in combination with the wood veneer of the interior. This, in combination with the translucent door that separates the entrance hall from the living room, the sand colored Earthcote wall cladding, light grey polyurethane floor and a variety of woods make the house appear dynamic yet harmonious.